Current config

Acer Nitro 5 laptop

  • Acer Nitro 5 AN515-51-5048 - Gaming Laptop - 15.6 inch
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4096MB)
  • Initially 8gb ram, but currently 24gb (23.4)
  • Interl core i5
  • DDR4 soddimm
  • 1000 gb HDD
  • 128 gb SSD

    things to do before starting

  1. take backup of stuff (done tboa)
  2. upload everything to github (done)
    • init file for emacs (done)
    • blog (done)
    • CV related shizz (done, made a backup on drive but also have on git)
    • stray files (taken care off as much as possible)
    • desktop files need to be reviewed (reviewed including downloids)
    • fastblog (all uptodate)
    • and other tkravi blog (all uptodate)
  3. understand memory management and understand how to extend the memory (doneish)
  4. I will keep 500gb and possibility to extend with the new config…
  5. Make ubuntu 20 copy and let’s go?
  6. remove call of duty from windows… (not necessary)
  7. Measure current boot time. (done)

Customizations I need to keep track of

  • Numpad as keys
    • keyboard shortcuts –> Navigation –> Shift workspace to left –> keypad up
  • .bash aliases for different things (saved to github)
  • alt-N to move thigns from one screen to the other (use compiz config manager settings)
  • hpmor customizations… done
  • keys etc… done
  • anaconda config? Skipped have instructions to install.

apps I want

  • okular
  • document viewer
  • emacs with R and pythiath capabilities
  • anaconda
  • chroath & firefox
  • maybe (hamster indicator)
  • spotify

goals

This time I want more battery This time I want a faster boot time (NOT @ mins) Measure current boot time fix lan connection issues (doesn’t seem to exist) github issues with authentication to be fixed

re-installation projess

  1. According to here and here, it is suggested to delete the partition from windows disk management. Partitions to be deleted have “NO” FileSystem
  2. checked what boot mode I have and made sure secure mode is disabled. here
  3. Went to windows to reduce partition Now have windows files followed by unallocated followed by ubuntu
  4. checking in install if the unallocated objects are seen?
  5. installed regularly with swap root and home partitions, and installation worked out of th e box… Really wierd.

adding unity

Based on linuxbabe article Really having wierd vibes with gnome. Need to install something to tune it… Even workspaces are not available off the bat. Am happy with unity. It’s ok.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

Select lightdm and ok.

sudo shutdown -r now Adding tweak tool

sudo apt install unity-tweak-tool

Check available desktops

ls -l /usr/share/xsessions/

Remove gnome

sudo apt remove gnome-shell

and check available desktops again

remove indicator messages (mail icon on top panel)

sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages

chrome

link

sudo apt install gdebi-core wget  
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb  
sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

update chroath

https://askubuntu.com/a/1275978/443958

These are a couple of ways to update Google Chrome on Ubuntu 20.04 when the installation is done through the .deb file:

  1. Open Software Updater. Select and install the available Google Chrome update.
  2. Through Terminal. Type sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install google-chrome-stable.

chrome slowing things down

Ruining one youtube and a few tabs slows the hell out of my pc.

Experienced this far too often, so I disabled the hardware accelaration

disabled chrome feedback tingy Help improve Chrome's features and performan. Let’s see how it goes from here on! :)

Graphics card

All installed automatically and nvidia-smi works spot on.

Second screen suddenly stops working Monitor after restart

I think some updates happen and shit goes to hell. For ubuntu20, I never did anything to begin with but worked straight out of the bat. I have faced this thing before.

Checked Software updates and that seemd to be using xorg. So first red flag and the second red flag was that nvidia-smi wouldn’t work.

  • there were some issues with my upgrade or something. I needed to partial upgrade, said ok to everything.

  • on top of it sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade.

  • Check out what is latest launchpad driver available (470 was available but went with 460, as I think that is what I was using before.

  • So, dpkg --get-selections | grep nvidia, sudo apt-get purge nvidia* and then went to Software-updater and then clicked on 460 in additional drivers.

  • Restart and finally open the display settings and switch new monitor on and keep changes I think.

indicator on taskbar system monitor

https://askubuntu.com/a/907807/443958

sudo apt install indicator-multiload

workspaces

Appearnaces–> enable workspaces, toggle hiding of side bar, add desktop icon

That was it… Gnome had this whole shabang of shit… Now for the last part with compiz manager

move window from one screen to another, Add additional workspaces

Shift-Alt-N is the shortcut we would like… Do the following:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins

Go to Put, tick the check box and set the shortcut for put-to-next-output.

https://askubuntu.com/a/108306/443958

On later versions of Ubuntu Workspaces are in the Workspace switcher. The number of desktops can be modified by installing the CompizConfig Settings Manager and changing the numbers listed under “General Options > Desktop Size”.

ubuntu media codecs

Not sure why it is required, but installing it as per here.

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

add github accounts

  1. myblock
sudo apt-get install git

git clone https://github.com/agent18/agent18.github.io.git myblock

git add -A

git commit -m "empty testing git on new pc"

git config user.email "agent18@github.io"

git config user.name "agent18"

git commit -m "empty testing git on new pc"

git push
  1. fastblock
  2. cvblock
  3. emacs init
  4. sql anything

Emacs init

Folder already has something after installation of emacs. So we can’t just do git clone https://github.com/agent18/emacs-config.git.

According to here, the following were needed:

git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/agent18/emacs-config.git
git pull origin master
git config user.email "thetj09@gmail.com"
git config user.name "agent18"
git push --set-upstream origin master

Now need to setup the permanent PAT as follows: only one command as the other aspects are done earlier.

git config credential.helper /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret

fastblock

  1. Create PAT

  2. clone and test connection

  3. fix github modified time issues

  4. use PAT using credential helper

  5. add gcm core as shown below

  6. get it to work?

Instructions are here.

  1. install docker as per here

  2. Install docker compose as per here

  3. sudo make server (takes a full 5 mins) to run…

write to git (deprecated, doesn’t work)

How to store multiple PATs/passwords for use by git?

I wanted to store my credentials “safely” so I did as instructed here. This way I don’t have to input password/PAT every single time.

  1. Install libsecret using sudo apt-get install libsecret-1-0 libsecret-1-dev

  2. Build the “credential manager” using sudo make --directory=/usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret

  3. and then configure my local git folder using git config --global credential.helper \ /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret

Works superb.

What I don’t get is how to do the same for many passwords associated with different accounts/repositories. I was suggested to use gcm core

I tried installing gcm core as instructed here.

  1. Download .deb package

  2. sudo dpkg -i <path-to-package> git-credential-manager-core configure

  3. configure the “credential store” git config credential.credentialStore secretservice (as I use libsecret).

  4. I removed the Credential helper pointing to /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret from the local git config file.

It still doesn’t work. When I try to push a repo, I get a garbled message with how to use git config followed by request to fill in credentials (shown here). I don’t understand what I am doing? namely credential store, credential manager, and gcm core.

I looked here and here and I still don’t get it.

github tackling the deprecation notice to use tokens (Multiple accounts)

Hi @agent18, You recently used a password to access the repository at agent18/agent18.github.io with git using git/2.7.4. Basic authentication using a password to Git is deprecated and will soon no longer work. Visit https://github.blog/2020-12-15-token-authentication-requirements-for-git-operations/ for more information around suggested workarounds and removal dates.
Thanks, The GitHub Team

  1. Create a token from github: https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token
  2. Copy your token : deleted
  3. How to save the password and use it when I want?
  4. Can I do it for different accounts?
  5. Most useful answer: http://gmacario.github.io/2017/08/08/cmdline-git-with-github-2fa.html

I currently use git config credential.helper cache to save the credential briefly

Securely saving the password with libsecret…

  1. https://askubuntu.com/a/959662/443958

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04, almost fresh install, with Git 2.25.1 and unity 7.5.

Authentication basics

Github needs an authentication key (with certain rights tied to authentication key). In theory others can contribute to your repo with just an auth key. A particular auth key has certain rights, (read private repos, read write public repos etc…).

Personal Access Token

  1. We start with making a PAT. I.E., Settings –> Developer Settings–> Persaonl access tokens –> Generate new token –> Note –> set permissions (repo,repo_hook maybe) –> generate token
  2. git push the repo and type the generated token(very long password) as password when asked.

Storing the password in different ways

    • Can be done in a file and then using xclip to bring it back to clipboard and paste it everytime (Screw this)
    • Cache with the [help of git commands][1] git config credential.helper cache <time-limit-of-cache>. But you still have to somehow clipboard the password after the timelimit.
    • Store it permanently in a file [with git commands][1] git config credential.helper store (don’t use –global). This is NOT ENCRYPTED. You can open the file and read it. (e.g., If someone gets access to your laptop they can pretty much read the Password using a bootable USB (assuming your whole system is not encrypted)).
    • Or go the encryption route as per here. It is not complicated at all. 3 simple steps.
sudo apt-get install libsecret-1-0 libsecret-1-dev
sudo make --directory=/usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret
    
git config credential.helper /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/credential/libsecret/git-credential-libsecret

This allows to store the pw in an encrypted format. The git config file can be found in the .git/config file in your loca repo as shown here, if you ever need it.

P.S. There are many places that suggest the use of Gnome-keyring but that is apparently deprecated. Also answered the above here

Storing passwords/PATs for more than one account

This becomes tricky and it appears as @VonC suggests that we need a Git-Credential-Manager core (GCM core). This answer is enhanced based on my findings in [this answer][2].

  1. First [install GCM core][3]

    1. Download latest .deb package
    2. sudo dpkg -i <path-to-package>
    3. git-credential-manager-core configure
    4. git config --global credential.credentialStore secretservice as we use libsecret

  2. Get latest git

    In my case I had git 2.25 and got error error: unknown option 'show-scope'. It appears that GCM core is using higher git (atleast 2.26).

    So install the latest and greatest git as per here:

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:git-core/ppa
 sudo apt-get update
 apt list git # shows the latest git currently 2.31
 sudo apt-get install git #or sudo apt-get upgrade

  3. Update git remote path with username built in

    GCM core needs this to identify the different accounts.:(

     git remote set-url origin https://user1@github.com/user1/myRepo1.git
 git remote set-url origin https://user2@github.com/user1/myRepo1.git
                               ^^^^^

Your ~/.gitconfig file will thus have the following :

 [credential]
	helper = /usr/bin/git-credential-manager-core
	credentialStore = secretservice
[credential "https://dev.azure.com"]
	useHttpPath = true

Once everything is installed and the next time you want to clone

How to setup git

git clone clone-link 

git config user.email "user@github.io"

git config user.name "user"

git --set-upstream origin main-or-master

git pull origin main-or-master

git remote set-url origin https://user@github.com/user/sql-stanford.git

With this it will work in my computer if the above setup is done.

latex installation to work with auctex

I have some instructions on my site. Teh init file is set, so no changes there… Need to install other packages I think..

Started and found that latexmk was missing.

sudo apt-get install latexmk Now xetex is missing

sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-extra

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-recommended
sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex

This is it… Generates the pdf required. :)

okular

sudo apt install okular

fixing issues with github modified-time

When you clone, all the modified times are missing as it is not recorded in git. The way around is to use some script to match modified times with commit time (which is somewhat good enough.

we start here which has 2 solutions which is pointed to. We choose this one.

check pre-reqs Pre-reqs

Need badh, python3, git

install and run

sudo apt install git-restore-mtime
git restore-mtime --test
git restore-mtime #works in the folder you are in and other sub folders (GREAT)

Currently at 66mb and now about to test and then jekyll serve Let’s go… Now it is 69.4mb

cvblock at 696.8 before doing nythin…

installing jekyll

Ruby 101 https://jekyllrb.com/docs/ruby-101/#gems

Ruby is a programming language. Gems are code you include in ruby projects, Something like packages. Jekyll is a Ruby Gem. Many Jekyll plugins are also gems.

Gemfile is a list of gems used by your site. gem is the “package manage” to install different gems (pacakges such as jekyll and bundler)

Bundler is a gem that installs all gems in your Gemfile in the local folder.

Bundler is even more powerful with it’s “environment” type of behavior (seen in conda). bundle install installs the gems specific to GEMFILE.lock file in your local folder. And to invoke those installed “gems”, all you need to do is prefix bundle exec in front of that command.

bundle exec jekyll serve

If you don’t have a gemfile here. Then just go for jekyll serve

rbenv and RVM both help decide which ruby to select. They are both ruby version managers. RVM however modifes some basic functions and “might cause some issues” as suggested here in reddit

check pre-requisites

ruby and gem already exist with the right versions. Look here

ruby -v # needs to be greater than 2.4.0
gem -v
gcc -v
g++ -v
make -v

install jekyll and bundler

gem install jekyll bundler Maybe start with it one by one.

errors for bundler I think

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
You don't have write permissions for the /var/lib/gems/2.7.0 directory.

It seems like sudo gem install jekyll bundler helps out on this.

gem info bundler

seems to show that bundler is installed.

Errors for Jekyll

ERROR:  Error installing jekyll:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

current directory: /var/lib/gems/2.7.0/gems/eventmachine-1.2.7/ext
/usr/bin/ruby2.7 -I /usr/lib/ruby/2.7.0 -r ./siteconf20210502-70458-175i32k.rb extconf.rb
mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby at /usr/lib/ruby/include/ruby.h

You might have to install separate package for the ruby development
environment, ruby-dev or ruby-devel for example.

extconf failed, exit code 1

Looks different to issue I had in 2016. The “header” files are said to be missing and usually dev files have such information and found something similar in this answer.

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
sudo gem install jekyll

Check if there are packages using dpkg -l | grep ruby-dev

DONE, works well. :)

emacs installation

GNU.org says latest version is: 27.2. Kellyk says 28.0.50 (dev version). but 26.3 on focal.

Current repositories say that the latest version is

  1. Instructions to compile latest version

  2. Instructions to install after adding ppa is given here

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelleyk/emacs sudo apt-get update apt list emacs* sudo apt install emacs27 # as 27 is a stable release and dev is happening in 28.

Once I cloned the repo to the .emacs.d folder and opened emacs, then I got several errors saying auctex- was missing. This didn’t make sense. Also when I was looking up package-list-packages I got that marmalade-repo certificate is out of order. Looked it up online and that seemed to be the issue. commenting the marmalade repo off was enough. Everything I setup up such as wordcount-mode time winner and ibuffer seem to work, without me doing absolutely anything. Which is Fucking Amazing. As I have jumped from emacs 25 to 27 and ubuntu 16 to 20. :) inshaller inshaller.

Need to tell emacs which abbrev-mode file to choose. Working on it.

Here is info on how abbrev-mode file works. So the way I have set it up is correct. All I needed to do is restart. Great! :)

Not sure about latex and python. But that is for another day, when I need to do it. But maybe I should already set it up to that point… Cause when I need it I might not have time.

setup the cv block and add latex setup and see what all I need to dag… inshallah

battery management

Fresh install currently gives 100% to 50% in 45 mins.

Look at tlp stuff.

also add preload

why is my ubuntu slow

could be otherthings like verbose mode maybe, hte “clean” command that comes after or look at systemd-analyze blame

timing of current ubuntu 16.04 [20.04 fresh] [unity] [[unity clean]]

Power on to grub –> 11s [4.5s] [4.5s] [[4.5s]] Power on to password screen –> 80s (1.5mins) [58s] [80s][[60s]] Power on to loading computer before seeing iconds –> 163s (2.5mins) [80s] [102s][[80s]] Power on to chrome loading and showing first page –> 220s (3.5mins) [94s] [128s] [[115s]]

Creating a bootable usb drive in ubuntu

Link to create bootable usb drive

  1. open startup diskcreator and just follow instructions.
  2. There is not really anything you can change or make mistakes with.

Above method doesnt work, Use Disks instead

Startup Disk Creator is known to having issues. Use the Disks tool to create the Ubuntu USB installation medium. Open Disks and select the USB drive (on the left) to be used as medium. Then select Restore Disk Image from the menu on the top right of the application. Choose the
Ubuntu installation ISO file - check if the USB drive to write it to is correct and Start restoring.—using disks to make image

I had to format the device first in Disks before I went forward with making the bootable disk. It has 3 partitions for some reason, one is the bootable part, one is the empty part and the other is the 4mb of ubuntu 20 EFI FAT version

understanding ubuntu partitions and my current partitions

Understanding linux partitions link

Naming convention We often see Sda, sda2, sdb etc… What this stands for is the number of disks on your system. In my current system I have a 128 gb SSD and 1000GB HDD.

This means I have sda and sdb, i.e., Disk0 and Disk1 in windows.

Partitioning

There are two partition table standards – MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table). MBR, also know as ms-dos, is what you might call the first standard.

  1. Do sudo fdisk -l to find out the DiskLabel to be GPT or MBR. New computers with windows 8 onwards usually have GPT partitioning.

  2. You can also tell whether GPT or MBR is in use by accessing the UEFI setup utility. Under the Boot menu, look for PCI ROM Priority. You should see two options – EFI Compatible ROM and Legacy ROM. The latter indicates MBR.

Current Split

sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL or 
	
df  -h

HDD 1kGb sdb 931,5G
├─sdb4 ext4 111,8G /home
├─sdb2 swap 14,9G [SWAP]
├─sdb3 ext4 23,3G /
└─sdb1 ntfs 581,5G /media/eghx/Data Data (windows dater

SSD 128 Gb sda 119,2G
├─sda4 ntfs 1G Recovery ├─sda2 16M
├─sda3 ntfs 118,1G /media/eghx/Acer Acer Program files └─sda1 vfat 100M /boot/efi ESP

eghx@eghx-nitro:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb3        23G   19G  3,3G  85% /
...
/dev/sda1        96M   54M   43M  57% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb4       110G   75G   30G  72% /home
...
/dev/sda3       119G   73G   46G  62% /media/eghx/Acer
/dev/sdb1       582G   99G  483G  17% /media/eghx/Data

disk partition Steps

based on: link 1, link 2. link 2 has many links to solve issues for you.

if you care about windows then do it in windows management, if you don’t care then you can manage windows partition from gparted itself.

  1. go to windows “Disk Management” and then look at the large partition that you wanna split and then unallocate it.

  2. Make a live USB of Ubuntu so that you can manipulate Ubuntu. Follow these instructions word-for-word and that is good enough.

  3. Make Back up in your original Ubuntu on your Google Drive. Just the important stuff

  4. Restart! and Boot live USB stick using F12 for ACER. Sometimes this might not work, in which case you need to go to the system menu somehow (available in the grub boot menu) and change there in “Main” to enable “F12 boot”.

  5. F12

  6. Open live USB and go to “Gparted”.

  7. Move as per requirements. Here is a nice tutorial from “how-to-geek”

  8. If unallocated part is not next to the part you want to expand, this then involves moving all the partitions so that the unallocated is next. This has the “Warning-danger” message even for “moving” a partition. Do AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Caveats

  • “Unallocated” needs to be close to the partition you are interested in.

  • Moving partitions is as “dangerous sounding” as re-sizing partitions. In my case I had to move partitions so that the unallocated space came in the end… But this is not worth the FAILURE if it does happen now…

    I will cross the bridge when the time comes. I am confident about reinstalling. I mainly need emacs for now and everything related to that is on the cloud, like my blog and the init settings. So I should be gucci.

UEFI and legacy bios before installing, secure boot shit?, windows fast start up

Secure boot forces both Windows and Ubuntu to require that all system level drivers are “signed”, proving that they approved as authentic software. The idea is fairly good, and on Windows, Microsoft signs most of the drivers. — askubuntu

So they say it’s no big deal, just disable secure boot.

Current settings in my system having installed 16 already is: Boot mode: UEFI Secure Boot: Disabled

As of Apr 2021, It's foss continues to recommend to disable secure boot here

Partitions needed research

Generally speaking, unless you’re dealing with encryption, or RAID, you don’t need a separate /boot partition.

That said, I occasionally find a use for adding a separate /boot partition as a FAT partition. This allows your dual-boot system to make alterations to your GRUB config, so you can create a batch file to shut down windows and alter the default menu choice so that it boots something else next. Most people don’t need this, but I’ve had a few projects which required switching back and forth, and it allows it to be done entirely by script. —ling

This guy suggests to have root, home and swap. In my old installation I also do have root (ext4), home (ext4) and swap (swap)…

askubuntu 2013 answer suggests that root home and swap are enough and to choose already existing bootloader device (sda or sdb and not just the partitions)

Order: Swap root home in one example and root swap home in another seems to be ok. swap root home is the askubuntu answer, and we stick to it.

Choosing primary or logical partition doesn’t seem to matter for UEFI + GPT